Danbury's Murray deserves high praise

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT), Newstimes

Published 1:00 am, Saturday, November 22, 2008

Is Danbury High's Rob Murray the best high school coach in Connecticut?

Based on what his teams have accomplished the past 8½ years, he certainly deserves to be in the conversation. But if describing someone as "the best" is too subjective, perhaps it's more accurate to call him the state's most successful coach.

In three sports!

Murray has been overseeing the cross country, indoor track and outdoor track programs since 2000. The school could use a new trophy case just for all the hardware his teams have earned.

The nationally-recognized cross country team has won the FCIAC, Class LL, State Open and New England championships each of the past three seasons. The indoor and outdoor track teams both will be trying to three-peat this year.

"I think by far he's the best coach in Connecticut, one of the best coaches. And when I say that I think one of the other one's is
Ricky Shook
," Danbury athletic director
Chip Salvestrini
said, referring to the Hatters' wrestling coach. "But Rob is right up there, especially with the record he has. It's absolutely amazing."

Shook coaches an in-state dynasty but his wrestlers can't compete regionally or nationally at the same level as the cross country team does. It's been ranked in the
Harrier magazine
's Super 25 each of the past three seasons and placed fifth last year at
Nike Team Nationals
in Oregon.

Murray's cross country teams have captured five State Opens and four New England championships in this decade.

That's why Murray arguably did his best coaching job this fall. He constructed a new lineup with only two proven returnees,
Tucker Schaefer
and Joey Bubniak, and produced the same results as the previous two years.

In fact, Danbury equaled a 13-year-old FCIAC record this season for the lowest score (23 points) set by the 1995 Hatters. It also defeated six nationally-ranked teams in the Eastern States Championship race at the
Manhattan College High School Invitational
. It is currently ranked fourth in the Northeast and 16th in the country in the Super 25 heading into the Northeast Region qualifying race Saturday at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, N.Y.

"Even after it seemed like it might be somewhat of a down year after our class left, they're still running great and still making a lot of noise not only in Connecticut or New England but in the nation, too," Willie Ahearn said. "I don't think he ever says, 'This isn't our year.'"

In fact, he began planning this season many months in advance.

"We sat down over the summer, the whole team, and he talked to us about how we were going to go in as the new guys and still try to win, about being a good team and having confidence in yourself and each other," said senior
Kevin Russell
, one of the Hatters' first-time scorers.

"
Coach Murray
makes everyone feel like a part of the team. If you feel you're a part, you're going to work harder because you know your time is going to come," Willie Ahearn said. "Their time has come and they're really stepping up. It's something about the way he motivates people."

Murray agrees he's probably done his best coaching this fall.

"I think I've had to use all my experiences with some of the other championship teams to try to fit these guys into the same mold that those guys were able to build toward," he said. "These guys didn't really have as much time to figure it out so it was definitely a lot more hands-on.

"It was challenging (but) it's not like we were reinventing the wheel. I felt pretty comfortable with the things I did with these guys just because of how some of the other teams that came through have responded," he added. "It was more of a mental thing, trying to get these guys to understand that they're ready. It was not so much a physical kind of a coaching challenge but more of a psychological challenge getting them to believe in themselves and believe that it can happen now even though they didn't really have a lot of experience last year or the year before to build off."

"His goal is to make the runners as fast as they can and it doesn't matter if they're more talented or less talented," Willie Ahearn said. "It matters if they have the desire and the drive to do the work that he asks you to. He's had guys come through the program who shouldn't have been runners and somehow are running post-collegiately."

The UT freshman recalls how former teammate
Brendan Richert
was chubby when he came out for the team but wound up running 16:30 for 5K under Murray's guidance.

"Above all he knows the sport the best and he knows what he's doing," Russell said. "And I think another thing is he knows how to listen to his athletes and he knows how to go in with a plan and modify it on the spot depending how the runners are feeling."

"People know that if they follow what he says that they're going to be good," Willie Ahearn said.

Murray, who graduated from Danbury High in 1988 and has a degree in exercise physiology from Southern Connecticut State in 1993, was an All-FCIAC runner and also ran in college. A personal trainer, he was only 31 when he was hired to coach at Danbury, but he's far wiser than his age would suggest when it comes to running and training.

His strongest influence has been
Jack Daniels
, a PhD in exercise science whose Cortland State girls teams won seven
NCAA
Division III titles and had 40 All-American honors between 1989 and 1997. Murray, the co-founder of
The Running Academy
, is excited about hearing Daniels speak at a clinic at
Trinity College
in December.

"I'm constantly trying to learn," he said.

Murray believes part of his success is his ability to make a connection with his athletes.

"I feel like I can relate to the kids because I was a runner and I still run with the kids," he said. "I try to be patient with the kids. At times you do have to be tough with the kids but I feel like a have a pretty good sense of when to push them and not to break them. I feel they trust me and I can trust them."

"He's always the kind of guy you could go talk to about anything. He's real genuine," Ahearn said.

The runners call him Rob. Considering his body of work in less than a decade and the current state of his three programs, we'll call him the best high school coach in Connecticut.